Peter Navarro

Peter Kent Navarro (15 July 1949-) was Director of the National Trade Council from 20 January to 29 April 2017 and Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy from 29 April 2017.

Biography
Peter Kent Navarro was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1949, and he became a Harvard researcher on energy and environmental policy during the early 1980s before becoming a Professor at UC Irvine in 1989, serving for over 20 years. He wrote nearly a dozen books about energy policy, charity, deregulation, and the economics of trash collection. In 1996, he was a failed Democratic US House of Representatives candidate for California's 6th district, and he unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of San Diego five times; he also supported Barack Obama's green energy policies. Navarro was a strong proponent of reducing US trade deficits, accused both Germany and China of currency manipulation, called for increasing the size of the manufacturing sector, and opposed NAFTA and the TPP, and his views were criticized as fringe and misguided by other economists. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump appointed Navarro Director of the National Trade Council and Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, both of which were positions created for him.